Panda cub likely victim of heavy rains
Print Edition
A giant panda cub has drowned in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, likely falling victim to a flash flood after days of torrential rain.
Zhang Xueliang, a worker at the Heishui River nature reserve, found a dead giant panda cub on a river sandbank near Yunhua Village in Dayi County at about 1:30pm on Tuesday, the Chengdu forestry bureau said yesterday.
Sichuan has been hit by heavy rain over the past few days, prompting nature reserve workers to beef up patrols.
The nature reserve sent the dead cub to the Chengdu wildlife rescue center to find out the cause of the death.
The center found that the cub, about 6 months old and weighing 14.25kg, may have accidentally fallen into the water after a flash flood and then been washed downstream to a sandbank after drowning.
Giant pandas mainly live in the mountains in the north of Sichuan Province as well as in the southern parts of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.
Very low birthrates have been one of the major factors threatening the survival of giant pandas, as is habitat loss, though the species was downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2016, thanks to protection efforts by Chinese scientists.
Sichuan has seen continuous downpours since Sunday as at least seven people were killed and another seven injured in aftermath flooding and landslides.
Strong precipitation has hit more than eight cities in western and northeastern Sichuan, causing 64 geological disasters.
Provincial flood control headquarters said a total of 115,900 people in Sichuan were affected.
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